1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sun visor to be used in a vehicle such as an automobile to shade or protect the eyes from sunlight or the like, which comprises a punched plate that blocks incident light obliquely from above and a light-attenuation plate that attenuates light passing through holes formed on the punching plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, sun visors have been equipped on front windows of vehicles such as automobiles for shading driver""s eyes from sunlight or the like incident from the front.
There are two types of the conventional sun visors: one is a non-translucent type for blocking incident sunlight or the like perfectly, and the other is a translucent type for securing a clear view to the front (i.e., the driver""s front view) while blocking incident sunlight or the like.
The non-translucent type sun visor has an advantage of perfectly blocking sunlight or the like. However, it is difficult to keep the safe operation of the vehicle as the sun visor restricts the driver""s front view.
On the other hand, the translucent-type sun visor comprises a frame formed from a resin material for enclosing a punched plate. The punched plate has a plurality of holes and is colored with black for preventing the reflection of light on its surface. In addition, a mirror is optionally attached on a part of the punched plate.
The translucent-type sun visor using such a punched plate has an advantage of blocking incident light obliquely from above.
In this case, however, light incident laterally from the front (i.e., incident light perpendicular to the surface of the punched plate) passes through the punched plate, so that there is no advantage of shading the driver""s eyes from light such as the morning or evening sunlight.
For solving such a problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laying-open No. 62-500222 (1987) discloses a vehicle sun visor that allows the adjustment of the amount of incident light to be passed through the sun visor.
In this reference, the sun visor comprises two plates having two different polarizing films aligned alternatively with a predetermined distance. For adjusting the light amounts, two plates are placed one upon another and at least one of them is shifted its position with respected to the other.
Such a mechanism for adjusting the light amounts requires a driving mechanism that includes a motor, a control device for controlling the motor, and so on. Thus, there is another problem that such a sun visor has a complex and expensive configuration.
It is an object of the present invention is to provide a sun visor to be used in a vehicle such as an automobile to shade or protect the eyes from sunlight or the like, which comprises a punched plate that blocks incident light from the front and a light-attenuation plate that attenuates light passing through holes formed on the punching plate to obtain a clear view to the front and attenuating effects on light incident from the front to reduce glare.
There is provided a vehicle sun visor comprising: a sun visor body having an opening; at least one punched plate having a front side and a back side and a plurality of holes opened between the front side and the back side, which is fitted in the opening of the sun visor body; and at least one light-attenuation plate for attenuating incident light passing through the holes of the punched plate, which is placed on at least one of the front side and the back side of the punched plate.
Therefore, an advantage of the present invention is that sunlight or the like incident obliquely from above cannot pass through the holes of the punched plate. Such light can be effectively prevented without affecting a clear view to the front through the use of both the light-attenuation plate and the holes of the punched plate.
In addition, incident light such as morning or evening sunlight horizontally passing through the punched plate can be attenuated by the light-attenuation plate, so that the incident light introduced into a driver""s eye cannot be blinded by the glare.
Here, the light-attenuation plate may be a smoke plate made of a synthetic resin and the smoke plate may be commercially available. Therefore, the sun visor can be easily manufactured at a low cost.
First and second punched plates may be applied on the front and back sides of the light-attenuation plate, respectively, by means of a printing procedure. Therefore, there is no need to prepare punched plates as separate components to be attached on both sides of the light-attenuation plate, so that the number of components and the number of manufacturing steps can be reduced.
The holes of the first punched plate may be displaced from their corresponding holes of the second punched plate in a vertical direction of the sun visor body. By changing the orientation of the sun visor body, therefore, a lateral or angled clear view to the front can be easily obtained by turning the sun visor body.
Two or more punched plates may be stacked on top of each other in layers to form a punched plate assembly and at least one of the punched plates is provided as a movable punched plate that can be shifted its position by a sliding member, and the light-attenuation plate may be provided on at least one side of the punched plate assembly. Therefore, an advantage of the present invention is that sunlight or the like incident obliquely from above cannot pass through the holes of the punched plate, so that such light can be effectively prevented without affecting a clear view to the front view through the use of both the light-attenuation plate and the holes of the punched plate.
In addition, incident light such as morning or evening sunlight laterally passing through the punched plate can be attenuated by the light-attenuation plate, so that the incident light introduced into the driver""s eyes is not bright. Furthermore, the movable punched plate can be shifted its position by the sliding member for adjusting the degree of opening the holes or closing the holes perfectly when the intensity of incident light is too high or the front view is not required.
An engaging means may be further comprised in the sun visor for interlocking the movable punched plate on different predetermined positions before and after sliding the movable punched plate, respectively. Therefore, there is no possibility of accidentally moving the movable punched plate by mechanical vibrations or the like to be caused by driving a vehicle, so that the movable punched plate can be kept in place as desired.
A pivoted lid may be further comprised in the sun visor, which may be fixed on the lower part of the sun visor body by means of a hinge so that the pivoted lid is able to turn around the hinge. For extending the shield area of the sun visor body, therefore, the pivoted lid can be extended from the sun visor body by turning around the hinge, so that the sun visor can be functioned as an extension sun visor.
A rod member may be further comprised in the sun visor for attaching the sun visor on a predetermined portion of a vehicle, where the sun visor is able to turn around the rod member. Therefore, the sun visor body can be pivoted around the rod member, so that the sun visor can be easily oriented in position as desired.
The above and other objects, effects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.